Winter Palace
The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Kingdom of Youngia, is the offical Royal residence of the Monarch of Youngia, being so since it's construction in 1732. Situated between the Palace Embankment and Palace Square, the present Winter Palace was built over four stages between 1732 and the 1850's. The Palace is where the Youngian Monarch rules over 22 million square kilometers of territory and 675.5 million subjects. The Palace has an large number, with 1,786 doors, 1,945 windows, 1,500 rooms, and 127 staircases. History In 1703, Peter I of Youngia embarked on a policy of modernization and expansion that transformed the Tsar's Kingdom of Youngia into the United Kingdom of Youngia. This policy was speeded by the building of Saint Petersburg, Youngia's future capital, in 1703. The culture and design of the city reflected Byztantine Youngian archteture. The first Royal Residence in Palace Square was Petra I, a log cabin built in 1705, with only five rooms and two staircases. In 1712, the King transported it to Petorsykya Embankment, where it stands today. King Peter built a first real Royal residence, with Domino Stalshi building the first Winter Palace. The first Winter Palace had only two floors under a modest slate roof, so in 1721 the king commissioned a second Palace, completed by Georg Malttovkivy. This is were Peter the Great died in 1725. It cost 20,000 workers to build this large city, in a total of twenty years. They were starved, beaten, and burned. In 1727, King Peter II of Youngia expanded the Winter Palace, completing the third version. However, the city still remained a swammpy, backwoods camp. In 1730, when Peter died, Anna became Queen of Youngia. Queen Anna cared more for the city of Saint Petersburg then her predesscors. However, she ignored the third Winter Palace, living in the Anguisth Palace instead. After a while, the queen expanded Anguisth and encoprated the third palace, thus completing the current Palace. She overlaid the corps with pure gold and lined the sideways with silver studdied with rare rubies. She also put a garden around the Palace. The baby King Ivan VI of Youngia, who suceeded Anna in 1740, was deposed by Grand Duchess Elizabeth, who was crowned queen almost immeaditeadly. The new queen displayed wealth at her court, gave gifts to everybody, and executed few people. In 1753, the queen completed the renovation of the Palace, making it into it's current form. 850,000 Youngian dollars was spent to renovate the Palace, while the average worker on the project earned only one Youngian dollar a month. By 1759, near Elizabeth's death, the true Winter Palace was nearly completed. It was Queen Elizabeth who selected Catherine Aleysvoya to become the wife of Peter, the heir to the throne. This woman, who overthrow her husband in July 1762, was crowned queen and became known as Catherine The Great. She paraded her son through the Winter Palace but her son Paul never became king. She became the queen. Queen Catherine expanded and transformed the Palace. She destoryed an opera house to create apartments for members of Catherine's growing and influential family. The arcthect Glavov performed this and the queen awarded him with money, land, spicies, and servants. Jean Baptise Vallin became the queen's chief arctheuct, designed the Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences, and built the Palace's west wing. The queen christened the now three palace complex fully the Winter Palace, the Hermitage Complex, a name used by the queen Elizabeth for Palace private rooms. The palace's art collection grew. Queen Catherine instructed her Ambassdors to purchase thousands of priceful works of art and send them to the Palace. The collection included potraits of writers, monarchs, princes, intluectuals, scientists, and noble familes. The queen Alexis of Nicholas II would later expand the collection. Queen Catherine got pieces of art from London, Paris, Rome, Naples, Milian, and Amesterdam. Between 1764 and 1781, Catherine added six major art collections to the Winter Palace, which amounted to 340 paintings, 200 potraits, and 90 minatures total. They were all drawn by the great artists of the Ressiance, including Raphel, Tipolo, Remerbrant, Rubens, Titan, van Dyck, and Reni. Catherine was proud of the collection. The collection became so large Catherine built a seperate building to house it all. In the Winter Palace, the queen gave large, extrvagant banquets, dinners, and suppers. No servants were allowed and people were allowed to sit where they please. English and French became the offical languages of the court and all people were encouraged to study Capitalist phliosphies. Youngian was only to be spoken by and to servants and inferior income people. In 1768, as the Winter Palace grew in richness and splendor, Queen Catherine issued a Royal Law which subjated more then a million more pesants. Work continued on the Palace's expansion and renovation until Catherine's death in 1802. Catherine's sucessor, Alexander I of Youngia, ruled during the chatoic period of the Capitalist Wars and did not expand or renovate the Winter Palace to save money and men. After the defeat of the French in 1815, the king acquired the art collection of the former Empress of France. Alexander I was suceeded by his younger brother Nicholas I of Youngia in 1825. The king completed the palace's curtain apperance process and rebuilt it after the Palace Fire of 1837. The king Alexander II redecorated the Palace before his assianation. King Nicholas continued this. Rooms, Usage The western rooms of the palace are used for the queen and the royal family. The main room is the Malachite Drawing Room, where the queen recieves important guests and holds special cermonies. The Royal Dining Room is where all parties, dinners, banquets, and suppers take place. The apartments of the Monarch are the largest, with 230 rooms. The Monarch has bedrooms, bathrooms, dining rooms, parlors, kitchens, libaries, and sports grounds. One is the Bathouse of the Queen. The queen would go there, accompanied by servants, who would carry oils, towels, lotions, and soap. The queen would lay naked in the stem, which would warm her. Then, the servants would oil her and rub her, applying lotions and soap to her skin. Then, she would bathe in the water for as long as she liked. The princes and princesses have their own bathouses. The prince's and princess's quarters would have grand apartments and great halls. The Palace has a series of wings holding these apartments. Sports grounds, including tennis, basketball, baseball, volleyball, soccer, and football fields and courts mark outer wings of the Palace. Near the Winter Palace is the home of the Hermitage, the offical Royal museum. The servants of the royal family would live in grand quarters, with large terraces and main halls, decorated and lined with goblets of silver and bronze (not gold, to signify social diffrence).